


Just a Kiss

by eruriku



Category: The Sisters Grimm - Michael Buckley
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 15:50:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5748958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eruriku/pseuds/eruriku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six times Puck kisses Sabrina. (4/6: this is why we play)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. put a shirt on, hot stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty straightforward, six times the fairy prince kisses our angry detective. The next three chapters just need to be edited before I'll put them up, and I'm currently working on the last two.
> 
> The title's from the song 'As Time Goes By' which is from the movie Casablanca, which you should definitely watch if you're into classic sassy one-liners.

Granny Relda, Sabrina knows, is not an easy person to argue with. The fifteen-year-old is quite accustomed to her grandmother's stubborn streak and unwillingness to yield when it comes to something she firmly believes should happen. Unfortunately for Sabrina, this means that no matter what excuses she brings up about having to write her English and economics papers or helping Snow with Spring cleaning at the Charming mansion, she apparently has a family obligation to undergo escape training in the middle of Spring break.

"Oh, try not to be so grumpy, _liebling_ ," Granny says in what she thinks is a tone that will pacify Sabrina but in reality only fuels the irritated spark in the young girl. It's so god-awfully early in the morning, the sun isn't even out yet, and she's suddenly feeling extremely hungry.

She mumbles something incoherent to her grandmother before shuffling her way to the bedroom Daphne shares with Red. Once she and her grandmother make enough of a ruckus to scare an entire platoon to their feet, Sabrina practically drags a hazy-eyed Daphne by the ear towards what used to be Mirror's room but is now the location of all their detective training.

"S'it 'scape training t'day?" Daphne mumbles, rubbing at her eyes with both hands and yawning. Sabrina glances at her sideways, absentmindedly hoping that her sister would wake up a little faster, before she compromises their position during training.

"No fancy fur coat or seventeen scarves today? Straw hat? Snow boots? Water suit?" Sabrina asks sarcastically, reaching up and stretching her arms. There's no way out of this now, so she figures she might as well deal with it and kick ass in there. A particular _fairy's_ ass, that is.

Granny studies the girls' current attire, her eyes quickly observing the pyjama boxers and loose t-shirts they both have on.

"That should do, but you'll both need these," she answers, and before Sabrina can blink, her hands are fumbling to catch a pair of worn down sneakers her grandmother's apparently pulled out of thin air. She gives her grandmother a strange look before eyeing the dirty shoes and reaching in to pluck out a thick sock from each shoe.

"Am I going to be really angry when I get back?" she asks, deadpanning. Daphne snorts next to her before plopping down onto the floor to pull on her own pair of socks and shoes.

"That's a rhetorical question, right?" she says to her older sister. "You're always angry whether we win or not."

Sabrina grumbles unhappily about the whole thing but pulls on the grey socks and shoves her feet into the greying sneakers nonetheless.

"Let's just get this over with," she says unenthusiastically, like the happy camper she always is, and stomps over to the mirror hanging on the far wall. Bunny 'The Wicked Queen' Lancaster had fashioned Relda a new trial-mirror just like the old Hall of Wonders ages ago as a sort of half-apology and half-thanks, but hadn't gotten around to appointing the mirror a guardian. Relda's taken it upon herself to frequently remind Bunny that the beta-mirror is _fine_ without a guardian - since it's mostly used for storage anyway - and she needn't bother coming up with a new security and management system for it. Sabrina suspects Bunny's still lugging around a bit of a guilty complex, but she can't blame the woman.

"Remember to keep a cool head, girls!" Granny reminds her granddaughters encouragingly, stroking Daphne's untied hair and brushing her hand against Sabrina's shoulder as the two girls walk closer to the mirror's surface. Daphne smiles sleepily up at her grandmother and leans into her hand.

"We will, Granny!" she assures Relda as cheerfully as she can. Daphne takes her sister's hand and pulls them both through the mirror's chilly surface, not letting go until they're standing in front of the doorway that'll teleport them directly to the environment where the escape training will take place.

"'Keep a cool head,' psh," Sabrina repeats, rolling her eyes. Daphne subtly raises an eyebrow at her sister and lets go of her hand, steeling herself for the morning's challenge.

"What the hell does that even mean?" Sabrina continues to mutter to herself while she reaches up to open the door. She turns the knob, pushes the door open, and gets an answer she hadn't expected when the two sisters are sucked into a void of scorching, hot air.

Sabrina stumbles as she trips forward, but manages to catch herself instead of falling onto her knees like she normally does. She mentally applauds herself for getting better at keeping her balance whenever the door teleports them between the training sites and the Hall of Wonders. Daphne's not so lucky as the force propels her forward and she trips over a stone lodged into the dusty, yellow earth, landing hard on the blistering sand, no doubt scratching her knees in the process.

"Daph!" Sabrina cries out, reaching down quickly and pulling her sister to her feet.

"I'm okay," Daphne says, wincing but managing to stand on her own. Sabrina spares her one more worried glance before squinting her eyes and examining their location. She thinks Granny Relda really outdid herself this time. They're in a desert, surrounded by hundreds of dunes and small hills of sand with nothing in the distance but the wide expanse of the yellow, blurry, blinding heat.

"Real funny, Granny," Sabrina mumbles to herself. Next to her, Daphne giggles shortly.

"This is what she meant by 'keeping a cool head'?" the younger girl says amusedly. Sabrina ignores her and turns around where she's standing.

"Where do you think we are?" Daphne asks, taking a few steps of her own to study her surroundings. Sabrina blanches, spotting something in the air coming towards the two sisters at an impossible speed.

"Probably like the Sahara Desert but that doesn't matter, we got to move!" she blurts out quickly, her words all jumbled as her still sleepy mouth tries to keep up with her racing mind. Before Daphne can even turn around to look at Sabrina, the blonde spins on her heels and nudges Daphne forward, taking off like a bullet away from the speeding projectile. They'd both come to the logical conclusion that running and holding hands was _not_ a smart idea a few months ago, when they'd needed to escape through a forest and the constant connection had only slowed them down until a certain fairy had them both cornered right where he'd wanted. Sabrina refuses to let that happen a second time so she sprints towards the closest sand dune for _some_ kind of shelter, only looking back every few seconds to check that Daphne's right at her heels.

"Rise and shine, losers!" Puck's voice rings loud and clear through the thick silence of the arid desert, alerting Sabrina and Daphne to dive for the ground just as three grenades fly over their heads. Instantly, the hot atmosphere mixes with the smell of rotten eggs, chocolate, and old mustard, and Daphne crinkles her nose sharply, trying not to breathe in the putrid air.

"It is too fucking early for this," Sabrina mutters angrily through gritted teeth, forgetting to censor herself amidst a mouthful of hot sand.

"Language!" Daphne scolds her sister while she scrambles to her feet to keep running. Sabrina's been finding it harder and harder to keep from expressing her emotions verbally and both girls have already gotten into a bit of trouble when Daphne had first asked her parents for the definition of one of Sabrina's new words. Sabrina clicks her tongue in irritation but keeps running, pulling ahead of Daphne in no time. She figures it's pure luck when she looks up and spots an oasis in the distance, seeming to have sprouted out of nowhere.

"There!" she yells, pushing herself harder to find better shelter from Puck and his arsenal of glop grenades.

"This is some Spring break, huh?" Daphne shouts enthusiastically behind Sabrina as the sisters draw nearer to the oasis.

"Shut up and keep running!" Sabrina shouts back. She doesn't understand why Daphne's wasting her breath trying to make conversation when she should really be spending it trying to find a way out of this wretched sandbox.

"I don't understand why Puck keeps agreeing to do this! He could've just stayed in the city but - "

" _But_ he chose to come back to Ferryport Landing with us because he _enjoys_ making our lives a living hell!" Sabrina snaps at Daphne, hoping the bite in her tone will be enough to keep Daphne focused. Of course, her sister doesn't get the picture.

"You mean," Daphne says, stumbling over a small mound of sand and huffing as she tries to talk while she runs. "You mean he enjoys making _your_ life a living hell!"

Sabrina narrows her eyes, about to turn around to interrogate her sister but she can hear Puck's voice, singing an off-tune version of Yankee Doodle a little too close for her liking, and shakes her sister's comment off, focusing instead on the oasis which is only a few meters away now.

"Man, you two are slow today!" Puck yells from his position in the air behind them even as they dart into the oasis. Sabrina's eyes flitter in all directions as she almost runs straight into a tree, stopping first to make sure Puck is nowhere in sight before catching her breath. Daphne comes to a running stop in front of her, bending over to do the same.

"Now what?" Daphne asks between gulps of air. Sabrina glances up at the loose canopy of trees, into the depths of the oasis, and back at the desert.

"Maybe we can - " but before Sabrina can continue, Daphne's suddenly snatched up by something with glittering pink wings and she can hear her little sister's surprised yelp as she's being carried off. Sabrina runs forward yelling Puck's name angrily and vaguely discerns her sister yell the words 'why are you naked' before she loses sight of Daphne and the fairy.

"Damn!" Sabrina swears, stopping in her tracks and looking around desperately for ideas. She'd forgotten that sometimes Puck finds ways to separate the two sisters, knowing they work best when they're together. This time he's a little more forward about it, but the effect is the same, and thanks to the fairy, Sabrina's got ninety-nine plus one problems, now that she has to retrieve her sister before making her escape.

She jogs in the direction they'd been heading, using what tracking skills she's accumulated in the three years she's been training as a detective and eventually starts hearing her sister's and Puck's voices in the distance. She smirks to herself knowing fully well Daphne's speaking as loudly as she can to make it easier for Sabrina to find her.

"You don't just _forget_ to put on a shirt in the morning," Daphne says incredulously, and a little too loudly for God-knows-what-o'clock.

"You'd be surprised, little Grimm," Puck says haughtily. When Sabrina pokes her head out from the tree she's hiding behind, she finds Daphne and Puck at the spring of the oasis where a few groves of trees surrounds the body of water. She notes that Daphne's quite helplessly strapped to the trunk of a tree standing precariously close to the shore while Puck hovers in front of her above the water. She also takes note that for some reason, Puck's only wearing a pair of swimming shorts and nothing else, and she wonders when his back had gotten so broad.

"What?" Sabrina whispers to herself, shaking her head quickly to clear her mind of inappropriate thoughts about inappropriate fairies and instead looks around for something to distract Puck with.

"Sabrina's going to get me out of this soon, you know," Daphne warns Puck, still using an abnormally loud voice.

"Oh, I'm counting on it, marshmallow," Puck says, grinning widely.

"You're not as good of a villain as you think," Daphne taunts loudly, and Puck smirks inwardly. He knows she's trying to talk as noisily as possible but he thinks she's dragging it out a little too long and figures that Sabrina's probably somewhere in the vicinity by now.

Just as Daphne says this, Sabrina throws a stone she'd picked up into a huddle of trees off to the side, hoping the noise will distract Puck long enough so she can free Daphne or at least get closer to her.

Puck's ears perk up at the sound of twigs crunching and leafs rustling behind him. Finally. He winks at Daphne before turning around.

"Don't tell lies, Daphne. It's not nice," he quips before flashing her a grin. "Be right back!"

When he disappears into the collection of trees, Sabrina quickly makes her way around the spring and closer to Daphne's tree. Daphne spots her after a few seconds and starts squirming against her binds.

"Sabrina! I'm over here!" she whispers loudly to Sabrina, who responds by making angry movements with her hand that interpret as _Shut up, I already see you_. Sabrina rolls her eyes as she sneaks from tree to tree. Daphne's always been a bit of a talker and sometimes her mouth is the reason they get caught during these escape training sessions. Sabrina's been trying to drop her hints and tips on how to be a better, _quieter_ sneaker but while the younger girl acknowledges her suggestions, Sabrina hasn't been seeing any improvements thus far.

Sabrina glances around quickly before making her way to the next tree, closing even more distance between her and Daphne, when the most uninviting voice speaks up behind her.

"This was too easy."

Sabrina freezes in her tracks. For a second or two, she just stands there in defeat and she swears her eye starts twitching from how ticked off she's feeling. She's been made, her plan hadn't worked, and frankly, this is the part she's more used to; the part where she never goes down without a physical fight and at least one of the blondes leaves the escape training with a bruise on their shin or elbow or elsewhere on their body. Sabrina closes her eyes patiently (patiently for her), trying to reel in her anger before she spews out the dozens of obscenities she wants to throw at Puck.

"No remark? No awful comeback? You're slower today than I thought you were, Grimm," he rattles on behind her. He thinks that she might actually turn around and face him, like she always does, but he's proven wrong when she suddenly starts sprinting towards Daphne. Puck actually laughs out loud, one incredulous _Hah!_ , before whipping his wings out and zooming after her.

"Seriously!" he cries out, reaching Sabrina in no time and plucking her off of the ground from her waist and flying over to the tree next to Daphne. He has to fly a little slower because his new passenger's squirming to get out of his hold and since he isn't wearing a shirt, any sudden movements might make her slip and fall into the water. Not that he cares if she'll drown - he knows she can swim - but it'll certainly give her another shot at freeing herself and her sister.

"You really tried to outrun me this time," Puck muses, moving his head around constantly to avoid Sabrina's full-frontal assault.

"Let go of me! And why aren't you wearing a shirt!?"

"Okay, first of all, if I let you go, you'd get wet, and then you'd get mad at me, and then I'd have to deal with you and your hormonal wrath for the rest of the day, and second of all, why does everyone care whether I'm wearing a shirt or not?" he says out loud, as if he's taken deep offence.

"You didn't seem to care last night!" he says to Sabrina accusingly, whose eyes widen in mortification. She hears Daphne gasp below them, as if scandalized.

"What!"

"Put me down, you freak," Sabrina snarls, eyes narrowing dangerously. Puck grins at her and does indeed put her down as he approaches the tree next to Daphne but as soon as her feet touch the ground, rope bindings materialise out of nowhere and quickly coil themselves around Sabrina's arms, stomach, legs, and feet until she's just as helpless as Daphne.

"What happened last night!" Daphne demands to know.

" _Nothing_ happened last night, only that this psychotic pea brain seems to be forgetting how to put on clothes. Why didn't you tell me you decided to devolve, monkey brain?" Sabrina spits at Puck, pulling at her binds, which only seem to tighten the harder she struggles. Puck giggles delightfully at the two sisters' condition.

"Monkey brain is a _compliment_ , Grimm. And in any case - since when can't a guy walk around shirtless in his own house?" he asks playfully.

"It's not your house!" Sabrina retorts weakly.

"Maybe I'll just ask the old lady that, hm?" Puck asks, a gleeful glimmer in his eyes. "Come to think of it, I _do_ need to tell her you both failed today's training. I think you broke the record for fastest failed escape challenge yet."

Daphne and Sabrina groan at that, knowing that their failure today will only give their grandmother reason to increase their training and that she won't give a rat's ass whether it's their Spring break or not.

"So you saw him shirtless last night?" Daphne asks confusedly, looking at Sabrina for confirmation. She seems to have accepted their defeat also in record time and has gone back to the more important matter at hand.

"No! Yeah! Why!" Sabrina sputters, looking at her sister as an embarrassed flush reaches her cheeks.

"So? What did you think?" Daphne continues innocently. "What _do_ you think?" Sabrina regards her with wide, fearful eyes.

"What have I ever done to you?" she whispers disbelievingly at her younger sister. Puck chortles in front of them and takes the opportunity to answer for Sabrina.

"She loved it. _Loves_ it. Who wouldn't?" he says cockily, puffing up his chest. Sabrina glares at Puck with all the hatred she can muster.

"You're _disgusting_ ," she growls viciously in her stubborn effort to shoot him down with her mouth, but it's a failed attempt, just like the failed escape training, and it's enough to let her know that her day's not going to get any better at this point.

"Disgustingly gorgeous," Puck agrees with a pained look on his face. "It's such a burden." His face quickly forms its trademark grin and he straightens up in the air.

"Well, blondie, I gotta get your grandma and tell her how badly you guys sucked today. Don't miss me too much while I'm gone."

"Don't even bother coming back," Sabrina snaps at him. "I can only deal with you once a day."

"You wound me, Grimm," Puck says dramatically, clasping the wrong side of his chest before his wings start flapping a little harder. He puts his hand up to his lips and blows her a quick kiss, laughing when her already red face contorts in mortified disgust and Daphne giggles at his shenanigans. He doesn't waste another second and turns around to fly away. He hasn't even flown a full minute when he hears Daphne address her sister again.

"You gotta admit, sis, he's getting pretty hot."

"Would you shut up!?"

 

 

_\- fin -_


	2. merry christmas, ya filthy animal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just briefly - Granny's house has been restored at this point. Let me get away with some creative autonomy.

There's no place like home, especially when it's Christmas.

As much as Sabrina loves the city, there's something special, warm, and truly nostalgic about spending the Christmas holidays with her family (and their extended Everafter family) at Granny Relda's house in Ferryport Landing. This Christmas Eve has been weirdly delightful and not at all problematic, or in Sabrina's specific case, she can count the number of Puck's pranks in the past two weeks on only one hand, which is a feat in and of itself.

Granny's invited the whole family for the holidays, so the house is packed with guests, including but not limited to Sabrina herself, her two siblings, her parents, Jake, Red, and Mr. Canis. Granny had also invited Puck's relatives, but Titania had declined the invitation, referring to some big Christmas event in Manhattan that would give her more limelight with the public eye if she made an appearance. Thankfully, Mustardseed's accompanying Puck to spend the Christmas holidays at Ferryport Landing this year and since his presence always seems to have a sort of dampening effect on Puck's energy levels, the holiday break's been going off without so much as a hitch and only two or three pranks, none of which have changed Sabrina's hair colour. So far, so good.

It's still much too early in the evening to start opening presents but it's the perfect time to set up dinner, which is what the adults are busying themselves with. The children, pre-teens, and teenagers are gathered in the living room, which has been tidied up of family journals and dusty tomes to provide space for the family and the Christmas tree. They've been watching movies every evening for the past week and a half, and the movies have evolved from purely Christmas-themed films to any movie that's set during the winter or has snow in it. Yesterday it had been the second Captain America movie because the word "winter" is in the title, and the day before that, they'd watched the first Captain America movie because a good majority of the film is set in snowy terrain. Sabrina and Mustardseed bear the silliness of the movies and grumble to each other about their siblings' poor choice of "Christmas" movies but never complain too loudly since everyone ends up enjoying the films anyway.

Tonight, Daphne's chosen to put in _Anastasia_ and for once, Sabrina's got nothing bad to say about the evening film. She's snuggled up at the end of the large couch nearest to the Christmas tree with her knees tucked beneath her, absentmindedly playing with a lock of hair while she watches Vladimir and Dimitri teach Anastasia how to be a proper princess.

"Is Vladimir saying he could be just as good of a princess as Anastasia?" Daphne asks in the monotone she always uses when she's focused on a movie. Sabrina snorts and Mustardseed's lips quirk up into a smile as he gives Daphne a strange look.

"I think the point of the song is that with a little bit of help, anyone can do anything they put their minds to," Mustardseed explains easily. Sabrina snorts again at that.

"That's deep," she comments sarcastically. "Or maybe it was just a good place to throw in another song since this movie _is_ an animated _musical_." Daphne purses her lips as she thinks about the two different responses.

"I like what Mustardseed said better," she decides. Mustardseed throws his hands out to the side playfully, looking at Sabrina with a triumphant look on his face, complete with one arched blond eyebrow, jutted chin, dimple on the cheek, that lopsided Goodfellow smirk – the whole package. Sabrina shakes her head at him but doesn't fight the smile crawling its way onto her lips. She's known him for four years now. He might be the younger, more mature brother, but every now and then, Mustardseed exhibits certain characteristics that remind Sabrina that he and Puck are _definitely_ related.

"Are you being a total grinch again, Grimm? Save it for when second semester starts, would you? It's Christmas!" Speaking of the devil's spawn himself, Puck waltzes into the living room balancing a tray of six mugs of hot chocolate precariously in one hand.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Sabrina says lazily as Puck hands his brother a mug. "But I do recall that the Grinch saved Christmas."

Puck winks at Red and Daphne as he hands them their mugs. "Hard for you to save anything with a face like that."

Sabrina gives him a dirty look while Red and Daphne snort helplessly into their first sips of hot chocolate and even Baz, who's only six-years-old, releases a light giggle that draws the older kids' attention to him.

"See, even Baz here agrees with me, don't you, kiddo?" Puck says with a smile, ruffling the little boy's unruly red hair and making the little boy squirm delightfully.

"Yeah," he giggles, taking the small mug Puck offers him before the fairy makes his way to the couch and settles down in between Sabrina and Mustardseed, the last two mugs rattling on the tray as he sets it on his lap.

Before Sabrina can reach over to retrieve a mug for herself, Puck picks them both up and offers her the one in his right hand, the one closest to her. She lifts a hand towards the mug and opens her mouth to thank him but Puck playfully moves the mug away from her reach right before she touches it, an impish look on his face. Sabrina drops her hand in her lap and sighs exasperatedly, throwing him an impatient look. Puck just laughs at her reaction and sets his mug of hot chocolate down on the tray, and with his free hand, takes Sabrina's hand and places the warm mug in her palm.

"Jeez, there! Lighten up!" he tells her, but Sabrina doesn't miss the fond look in his eyes and she hides the growing blush on her face behind her mug, ducking her head as she takes a sip, her cheeks just as warm as the chocolate she's drinking.

Not even five minutes pass before Veronica appears in the doorway to call the kids in for dinner. Baz and Daphne instantly whoop out loud in reckless abandon and spring up from the floor to run to the dining room, almost knocking over their half-full mugs of hot chocolate in the process. Veronica dashes after them immediately, trying to reel in her two youngest children while Red and Mustardseed leave the living room at a much calmer pace. Sabrina's actually a little surprised that Puck hasn't torpedoed off the couch and she's even more shocked to see that he seems to be waiting for her.

"You're taking your own sweet time," he says offhandedly as she carefully sets her mug down on the floor near the couch where there's the smallest chance anyone might accidentally knock it over.

"I can say the same about you," she retorts, getting up. Puck seems to catch that she's noticed that he's waiting for her and shrugs one shoulder, reaching up with one hand to rub the back of his neck, hoping the act will cover up his embarrassment. It does quite the opposite, only drawing Sabrina's attention to the reddening flush spreading across the front of his throat, and she smiles a little, knowing she's caught him redhanded.

"Whatever, let's go eat," he mutters, stepping aside and waving his hand in front of him. "Ladies first." Sabrina raises an eyebrow at his actions.

"How chivalrous," she remarks. "I see your mom's etiquette lessons are starting to catch up with you."

"More like Larry's finally starting to get on my nerves," he says, making a face at the thought of his good-natured but annoyingly persistent tutor. Sabrina laughs lightly at that while she makes her way to the dining room. She can hear the clinking and clanking of cutlery knocking gently against Granny's special china plates blending in with the sound of her family's voices, no doubt chattering excitedly about the food spread out on the table (a mix of Granny's unorthodox recipes and Jake's and Veronica's more traditional, Sabrina-friendly dishes) and the inevitable gift-opening that's scheduled to happen at midnight. Sabrina takes a deep breath, briefly closing her eyes at the aroma of an entire Christmas dinner worthy of Gordon Ramsay's praise. She has her own opinions about her grandmother's cooking (not that she's quiet about it) but she has no doubt that her uncle and mother are kickass cooks when they want to be.

"God, suddenly I feel like I haven't eaten in three months," she says, rubbing her stomach when her belly rumbles as she walks down the hall. Puck snorts while he walks alongside Sabrina, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Welcome to my life," he says. "How do you think I feel all the time?"

"You're different," Sabrina says, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Damn straight," Puck agrees wholeheartedly, a look of childish pride on his face. Sabrina rolls her eyes just as they approach the doorway to the dining room, unaware of Daphne's vigilant eyes watching them from her seat at the table.

"I meant different as in freak of nature different," Sabrina says, but before she can step over the threshold of the dining room, and before Puck can open his mouth to offer up his own retort, Daphne stands up abruptly from her place at the table, startling the entire family.

"Stop! Stop right there! Hah!" she cries out, laughing out in what can only be interpreted as victory. Sabrina's so shocked that she actually freezes in place and stands there staring at Daphne in confusion. Puck almost walks right into Sabirna and stumbles a little, stopping to stand next to her.

"Pay up, suckers!" Daphne demands triumphantly, waggling her fingers in a _gimme_ sort of motion at her family. Mustardseed sighs and immediately pulls a few bills from his pocket, surrendering them to Daphne with no hesitation. Red pouts the whole time but pulls out money from her sweater pocket, barely reaching over before Daphne practically snatches them from her fingers, grinning widely as if she's just won the lottery, which, from the looks of it, she practically has.

Sabrina watches in astonishment as everyone – save her grandmother, little brother and Mr. Canis – actually turns over a few of their own bills to her little sister before finally fixing a suspicious glare on the twelve-year-old brunette, who's flipping through her newly acquired greens gleefully.

"…What the hell?" Puck speaks up before anyone can say anything. He wordlessly ignores the glare Veronica shoots him for his less-than-appropriate language.

"What's going on?" Sabrina agrees. Her previously grumbling uncle suddenly perks up and turns to Daphne.

"They haven't even kissed yet, Daphne, I want my money back!" he cries, and Sabrina almost chokes, but Daphne holds her wad of bills away from his reach.

"The bet was I could get them under a mistletoe before dinner, and I did!" Daphne says proudly. At those words, Sabrina blanches, the blood leaving her face, practically evaporating, and taking 400% of her dignity with it. She blinks once, twice, three times before peeking upwards and sure enough, spinning slowly in all its sparkling green and red glory is a charming mistletoe hanging from the threshold.

"Huh," Puck breathes out, and he almost sounds impressed. "That's pretty good."

"Granny, I thought you said the charm would clear the house of mistletoe until Christmas _day_!" Sabrina says accusingly through gritted teeth. Suffice to say, this is totally not how she'd expected her holidays to turn out.

"I'm sorry, _liebling_ , faerie magic is far more powerful than a mere herb charm," Granny apologises, but the smile on her face betrays her amusement and Sabrina can only look at her helplessly. Desperately.

"Yep!" Daphne quips. "Mustardseed helped out a little. It's a one-time spell. Like, only one mistletoe, only one chance, that kind of thing. But he still managed to make it work at the right time!" This time, Sabrina shoots a glare at Mustardseed, who actually jumps a bit from the intensity of her stare.

"We're going to have a little talk later," she snarls at him and he gulps, scooting as far away from the angry girl as possible.

"You don't have to do it, you know," Henry speaks up awkwardly. "You'd be killing two birds with one stone. Don't kiss the guy and save yourself the trouble, _and_ we'd all get our money back." Veronica reaches over and smacks him lightly on the head.

"Don't be ridiculous, dear," she says to him sweetly while he rubs the back of his head.

"I just thought –"

"Oh, for Christ's sake," Puck says loudly enough for everyone to hear. He turns slightly to face Sabrina properly and reaches up with one hand. In the back of his mind, he can see little red lights alerting his brain, his body and all of his hormones that this is a _code red, code red_ , and he's really going to do it, he's really going to touch Sabrina like this, but in that moment, all he can feel is the smoothness of her cheek and the tickle of her hair against his fingers as he brushes a loose lock of gold behind her ear. The red lights keep flashing in his head, a blinding irritation, as he leans in closer – he hears Sabrina gasp a little and thinks that he might like the sound a little more than he probably should – and suddenly all the red lights turn off when he connects his lips…

…with her cheek.

He briefly acknowledges Daphne cry out "Hey!" in protest.

Puck keeps his lips on her cheekbone half a second longer, and rubs his thumb on the skin behind her ear, and then he's pulling away, his lips brushing against her skin, before everyone can finish processing what he's just done. Daphne's distraught, still standing, and she's got this look on her face like Puck's just ruined Christmas and the next ten Christmases afterwards just because he hadn't kissed Sabrina on the lips like she'd probably (read: totally) wanted him to.

"What?" he laughs at Daphne's expense. "A kiss on the cheek is still a kiss." He spares Sabrina a quick glance and swallows his nerves before hurriedly stepping towards the empty seat next to his brother, immediately reaching over to wrestle with him a little.

"Can't believe you had a hand in that, you traitor," he says as he repeatedly rakes his knuckles roughly against Mustardseed's head, happily ignoring his younger brother's cries of pain.

Baz has been giggling nonstop throughout the whole thing, pretty sure he knows what's just unfolded between his oldest sister and his role model. Relda smiles a little, impressed with Puck's ability to smoothly reset the atmosphere into something more comfortable and familiar, and starts to settle down for dinner. Red and Mr. Canis give each other knowing glances as they wait patiently for Sabrina to join the family, for the Goodfellow brothers to stop roughhousing, and for dinner to officially start. Henry's twitching in his seat after Puck's little show, no matter how innocent the kiss might have been, and Jake's also twitching a little, but only because he's sure now that he won't be getting his money back. Daphne's finally sat back down, having realised that while her Christmas curveball didn't have the specific outcome she'd aimed for, she's still won enough money to buy herself maybe two or three new sweaters and that thought's enough to put a smile back on her face. Veronica looks at Sabrina when she realizes her eldest daughter still hasn't joined them at the table, apparently rooted to her spot under the mistletoe.

"Sweetie, you gonna eat tonight?" she says amusedly, mirth laced in her tone. Her voice snaps Sabrina out of her daze and the blonde quickly moves to sit at the last open spot at the table, one in between Red and her mother. She's still a little wide-eyed, definitely more than a little flustered, and she can still feel Puck's lips - kind of chapped but warm and soft from the hot chocolate - on her cheek. She's finding it hard to believe that had just happened in front of her entire family, even her _dad_ , and now the only thing she's thinking is whether or not Puck's going to like the present she'd gotten for him.

Merry Christmas indeed.

 

 

_\- fin -_


	3. good times never seemed so good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter so far! I love softball, angst, and first (real) kisses. I hope you do too!

They ask him to find her and bring her home for the night, and the first place he thinks to go to is the ballpark. There’s no real logical reason behind why he heads there immediately; she could as easily have gone to Central Park, or her favourite coffee shop, or the bike racks behind the school, or the Starbucks where they frequently study together, hell, she could have gone to his room at his mother’s apartment just a few blocks down the road (she once told him she feels weirdly comfortable there), but his instincts tell him to get on the next train and get off at the community ballpark a couple stops away.

By the time he reaches the gate, it’s past eleven but the field lights are on at full power, as expected from a baseball park in Brooklyn, and he spots Sabrina immediately from her blonde ponytail poking out of a Yankees cap. She’s managed to get the ball machine working – that thing’s over a decade old and should honestly be banned from usage, but Sabrina and the rest of her softball team are kind of attached to it so the owner of the ballpark leaves it lying around for them – and is working up a sweat smashing dirty, dented softballs into the field. She misses a few balls every now and then but in the two or so minutes that he stands there watching her, she definitely hits over ten impressive home runs into left- and right-field fuelled solely on pure anger.

When the ball machine runs out of ammunition and Sabrina’s forced to retrieve all of the balls from the field, he leans against the gate of the ballpark, not really caring if she’s noticed his presence or not. Sabrina throws each ball back towards the batting plate immediately after picking them up and he smirks to himself in amusement when he notices how rough and reckless her throws are. Figures that she’d need a little bit of a workout to blow off steam. When Sabrina starts to drag her feet back to the batter’s plate for another round of hitting, he grabs a spare mitt from a dusty, wooden cupboard near the gate and makes his entrance, not saying a word.

Sabrina raises her head at the sound of the gate rattling open and clanging shut but frowns when she sees that it’s only Puck. She opens her mouth to tell him to get lost before she realises she could probably use the company and since he isn’t saying anything anyway, she shuts her mouth and stubbornly marches back and forth between stray balls and the ball machine, refilling it for the next round. When the machine is filled to the brim, she glances at Puck to find him standing right at centre field, a position she’s familiar with, and softening the worn catching glove with a couple of whacks from his other hand.

Not a word is spoken; Sabrina simply picks up her bat and glances at Puck one more time. He raises his glove to let her know he’s ready and she begins her next set of hitting.

With Puck out there running back and forth, trying to catch as many softballs as he can without tripping and wiping the dirt with his face, Sabrina’s a little more focused, calmed by his mere presence. She gets the feeling that her parents and siblings probably sent him out to bring her home, but she’s quite positive he’d have done so in a heartbeat without them telling him to. The softball player in her notes in the corner of her mind that she hits better this time around - when she’s not so angry - and she reminds herself, as she constantly does these days, to keep her emotions in check.

But it’s been so hard, especially when communication in her family is at an all-time low, and more and more often these days, her mind gets teleported five years back in time to all those moments when she felt cornered, helpless, and _small_ against the likes of Granny’s nobility and Daphne’s naïvety. When Sabrina first got to the park half an hour ago after ditching the condo, she’d felt just as small, she’d been crying a little bit, and she’d felt exactly like her twelve-year-old self.

She’s never felt more outspoken on a case than she had tonight and it’s like everyone’s trying to take sides. Which direction should the family take with their newest clue? How should they approach their suspects? How can they determine who’s a legitimate suspect and who isn’t with so many magical variables at hand? And of course, it’s _her_ favourite question that had painted a big red target on her forehead.

_Can we trust them?_

_Them_ meaning all the Everafters linked to the case.

There isn't a single fibre in her body that wants to abandon this case or any other case afterwards, just like there isn’t a single molecule in her being that ever wants to abandon the Everafters. She’s been making quite a name for herself in the Everafter community with every solved case, she loves this job, and she’s _damn_ good at it. Unfortunately, her family doesn’t seem to realise that one reason she’s a natural at detective work is probably because she’s also a natural skeptic, but it isn’t her being cynical or negative or discriminatory at all, it’s her being _careful_ and thinking of the consequences (magic always has a price, after all). This is her thinking of their client, of the entire Everafter community and their potential exposure, and of her _family_ , but they wouldn’t listen.

(They never listen.)

She’d needed to breathe.

“Hey, you wanna take a break yet?” Puck suddenly calls out from right field as he makes a running catch, just barely managing to scoop the softball out of the air before it hits the ground. Sabrina sidesteps the next softball before it can hit her side and walks over to the pitching mound to turn the machine off. Once it stops spitting out old softballs, she glances over at Puck’s silhouette in the outfield and sighs heavily.

“Damn,” Puck says, and the only reason she can hear him clearly at this distance is because it’s late enough at night that the only noise surrounding the park is a crisp, clean hum; a mixture of the thin Spring wind, chirping crickets and the distant buzz of the city. He makes his way over to Sabrina slowly, taking his time, intent on giving her space.

Sabrina walks over to sit on the bleachers to wait for him, leaning against her bat and pressing her forehead to her hands. She only lifts her head when she feels the bleachers give with Puck’s added weight.

“Did they ask you to find me?” she asks him quietly. Puck shrugs and leans back on his hands, tilting his face up towards the night sky. His eyes search for the billions of stars he knows are out there, stars he’d seen before countless civilisations began erecting buildings and skyscrapers that, little by little, started to dim the lights.

“You know they wouldn’t ask me to do something I wouldn’t choose to do myself,” he responds cryptically. Sabrina averts her eyes and focuses on the bat in front of her, holding it upright and spinning it with her fingers.

“Are they mad?” she whispers.

“Baz is mad,” Puck chuckles. “But only because he has no idea what’s going on anymore, and he just wants you to come home.” Sabrina gulps and lifts one hand closer to her face to inspect it for new callouses and blisters.

“I’m seventeen-years-old and they still won’t listen to me,” she mutters, mostly to herself. Puck makes a face, squinting his eyes as if he disagrees with her.

“No,” he starts, thinking about how to phrase his next few words. “You’re seventeen-years-old and shouldn’t be running away from home in the middle of the night anymore.” Sabrina throws Puck an irritated look and curses at him, to which he smiles gently and ignores, responding only by leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

“Look,” he continues. “This is one of the biggest cases you’ve all taken up in the past five years. Veronica and Henry are probably stressing out about keeping you, Daphne, and Basil safe, and Daphne just wants what’s best for your client.”

“And us? What about what’s best for us? You _know_ the kind of magical Everafter shit we have to deal with, Puck! What if someone gets hurt?”

“You can’t think like that - ”

“I have to!” she interrupts him, unknowingly tightening her grip on the bat. “I have to, or else no one will, and I need to keep our family safe.” Puck frowns lightly at her, sitting up.

“That’s not your job, Sabrina,” he says carefully. She snaps her head to look at him, a disbelieving, if not angry, look on her face.

“It has _always_ been my job,” she says in barely a whisper. “You of all people should know that!” She’s helpless to the unexpected, brief flashback of the Jabberwocky mercilessly ripping Puck’s beautiful wings right off of his back all those years ago; she can hear his excruciating yell, she can practically feel the searing pain, and all of a sudden she’s on her feet, gripping the bat so tightly she can feel the skin on her knuckles protesting, but she has to get out of here before she starts crying again.

“Hey, hey,” Puck lifts himself off of the bench slightly, catching her hand before she can so much as walk off in the middle of their conversation. She hasn’t tried to do that in over a year and he’s not about to let her start again. He catches her wince slightly and withdraws his hand just a little so he’s only gently grasping her fingers, but he tugs her back just enough so she’s convinced to sit back down again. He doesn’t let go of her fingers and instead studies them, absentmindedly tracing her new callouses, wondering just how hard she’d pushed herself with the batting machine before he’d arrived to stop her.

Her hand is unusually cold for the middle of Spring and she’s trembling so lightly she’s almost vibrating but Puck recognises the look on her face. 

Fear.

He hasn’t seen it in the longest time but he has no doubt it’s always been in there and she’s only gotten better at masking it.

So he pushes aside _his_ mask, puts it away for now, and swallows the cocky, royal asshole he normally acts like when it’s not just the two of them alone.

“You’re scared,” he says quietly, and he’s incredibly aware of the bare skin of her arm touching his. “And you don’t want anyone to get hurt; not your client, not your parents, not Daphne or Baz. You don’t have to be ashamed of that.” He doesn’t look at her directly and focuses instead on her shaking hand but watches her from the corner of his eyes. He notes numerous little signals that she’s trying to stay in control, trying to reel her emotions in. She’s clenching her jaw so that the veins of her neck protrude more than they normally do, there’s a slight wetness in the rim of her eyes, and she’s looking at her lap, her head down, and the sight of her makes him want to reach over and lift her back onto her feet so she can stand again.

“But as long as you’re there,” he takes a moment to squeeze her fingers gently, running his thumb briefly over them, “no one’s going to get hurt.”

It’s not so much his words as it is that little action with his thumb that encourages Sabrina to finally lift her head to look at him. When she does, she sees a depth of honesty in his face - in his eyes, in the crease between his eyebrows, and in the frown of his lips - that sends a shiver through her body.

“C’mon,” he continues, giving her a little smirk. “You’re clever, and resourceful, and scary as hell when you want to be.” He speaks from experience and she knows it, finally managing to quirk up the corner of her mouth.

“You are the strongest person I know,” he says quietly, sincerely. “But it makes sense to be afraid sometimes. Okay?” 

Sabrina nods slightly and drinks up Puck’s words, a little appalled by his wisdom and his maturity, but even more grateful for him in that moment. He always manages to crawl his way back into her line of sight whenever it seems like the only person in the cold, cruel world is her and her alone, but she doesn’t remember ever asking him to look after her. Yet despite that, she’s pretty sure it’s an unspoken agreement between them now, that whether’s she having detective issues or he’s having royalty issues, at least they don’t have to go through them alone, and here he is, keeping his side of their silent bargain.

For a second she thinks she wants to thank him somehow, but she doesn’t know whether she should say it or do something about it, because it looks like he’s about to do something they haven’t done in six years. Puck’s gaze have been flickering to her lips ever since she looked up, and Sabrina hopes her eyes are lying when she notices that his pupils are completely dilated. Deciding to experiment a little so as not to miss the opportunity at hand (also, why not), she wets her lips with her tongue, and her eyebrow quirks along with her skipping heart when his eyes follow her movement and his Adam’s apple bobs suddenly.

And then she pulls her tongue back behind her lips and his eyes fly to her blue ones, and the moment is gone as if it had never happened. She pulls her fingers away from his hand and reaches up to tuck some hair behind her ear, clearing her throat.

“What?” Puck says hoarsely.

“No, I just - nothing, it’s dumb,” she replies quickly, shaking her head.

“No, what were you thinking?” Puck bends his head a little to try and catch her gaze.

“I just - for a second there, it felt like you were gonna kiss me,” she mumbles quickly.

“W-wait - ”

“Yeah, no, it’s stupid.”

“No, I mean - ”

“Just forget it! I appreciate the pep talk, okay?” Sabrina stammers quickly, cheeks burning up as she mentally smashes the baseball bat into her forehead. Of course she’d end up ruining a wonderfully tender and genuine moment with Puck. What’s new?

“I _was_ going to.”

“What?” She stares at him with a wide-eyed, uncertain look, praying to five different gods that he’s not pulling her leg. 

“I mean, I _wanted_ to,” Puck elaborates, and Sabrina prays to twenty more gods that this is actually happening.

“Then…?” She leaves her question hanging, holding her breath. Puck glances at her uncomfortably before looking away and running a hand through his hair briskly, messing it up even further.

“I didn’t want you to think that I only kissed you because you were having a moment of weakness, okay?” he explains, stumbling across his words. “Like, if I’m going to kiss you, I want you to know that I’m doing it just because I want to, not because I’m trying to _save_ you or make you feel better like your dumb chick lit books, but because I _want_ to kiss you,” he blurts out, and immediately afterwards, he takes a deep breath. He has this look on his face like he can’t believe he survived saying all of that straight to her face and she almost cracks a smile just looking at him. That didn’t make complete sense but since when was he so chivalrous? Or had he always been like this?

“Well,” she says slowly. “My moment of ‘weakness’ is gone and now I’m in a moment of confusion.” Puck throws her a dirty look, wondering if she’s mocking him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you should - just - go for it, dumbass,” she stutters embarrassedly. Puck blinks.

“Are - are you serious?” Sabrina breathes in deeply through her nose, steeling herself for the next few seconds.

“Yeah,” she whispers. Her left hand gently sets the bat down against the bench next to her and she licks her lips again, twisting her upper body to better face Puck. Since he’s already facing her, he reaches up slowly, albeit a little hesitantly, but eventually takes her chin between his finger and his thumb, tilting her face up towards him.

“Are you sure?” Puck asks again quietly, just so he can give them one last chance to stop this from ever happening in case either of them just aren’t thinking straight.

“Positive,” Sabrina assures him. He inhales a silent, sharp intake of air when he feels her breath brush over his lips and that’s enough to pull him towards her, ready to taste her lips on his ( _finally_ ) -

\- only to feel his forehead collide with the brim of her Yankees baseball cap.

“Fuck!” He almost swears right against Sabrina’s lips before jerking away, rubbing his forehead lightly with his fingers. Sabrina, on the other hand, bursts into giggles when she realises what happened.

“Are you okay?” she asks, still laughing. Puck grumbles frustratedly but doesn’t waste another second, only more determined to kiss her. This time, he lifts his leg up and over the bench so he’s straddling it and facing her directly. He reaches up with his hand again and takes hold of the brim of Sabrina’s cap, pulling it off of her head, along with her hair tie, releasing her hair from its ponytail so it can drape across her back the way he likes it. She gasps a little at his bold movements but a split second later, he’s swallowing her gasp and swallowing her breath, pressing his lips down into hers and rubbing his nose against the side of hers. She barely acknowledges him dropping her cap onto the ground because his other hand’s come up to hold her cheek in place, spreading the warmth of her flushed skin to his fingertips. She’s just about to tilt her head like she’s seen in too many shows and movies when he pulls away, not even noticing that she follows his lips like a moth to a flame.

“Um,” he stutters, and he licks his lips, staring right at her. “Was that okay?” Sabrina doesn’t know whether to roll her eyes or laugh, only that his hands are really warm against her face and she just wants him to kiss her again.

“I don’t know, m-maybe you should do it again, just in case?” she says breathily and he nods quickly (“G-good idea”) before taking her lips in his again, tilting his head before she can, giving himself more access to her, her tongue, her teeth, her _taste_.

And it goes on like that. He pulls away, or she pulls away, because every now and then, they need to breathe, but he keeps going back for more, and she never denies him another taste of her lips, only finally pulling away to get up off the bench when her watch starts beeping to signal that it’s a quarter to midnight. She’s laughing when she picks up her Yankees cap off of the floor and brushes the dirt off of it, and he’s suddenly so overjoyed at the sight of a smile on her face that he steals another kiss from her, delighted to know that _he’d_ put that smile there.

When he backs off (or when he can no longer breathe), she subtly slips her hand in his and fits her cap snugly on her head with the brim facing backwards so it’s not in the way. Puck takes that as a hint that she’s still giving him a green light to kiss her and he does so happily; enough that Sabrina’s watch has to beep again at midnight to give them a second reminder that it’s getting late.

“So this is a thing now?” Sabrina says hesitantly. Puck’s swinging their joined hands a little, his joy practically pulsing out of his pores and infecting her, and he looks at her curiously.

“What? Me retrieving you for your family? Or me kissing you? Because I can do both,” he says eagerly. Sabrina rolls her eyes.

“I meant _us_ , dipstick,” she snaps at him, but with a fondness that dulls the bite of her insult. “Are we… y’know, together?” She feels like asking him if they’re “boyfriend/girlfriend” would be so un-classy and a little naïve, neither of which are characteristics that embody her, but she needs to know somehow.

“I feel like we were always a thing, Grimm, don’t you?” he says in an overly cheesy voice, not directly answering her question but telling her just what she wants to hear, and that’s when Sabrina realises she’s entered a whole new era of jokes. She can see it now: all the stupid, lame, cheesy jokes about their relationship.

“Oh, no,” she whispers quietly, making a face at his awful line.

“Oh, yeah,” he grins, as if he’s read her mind, leaning in and nuzzling his nose against her cheek as they approach the ballpark’s gate. “You’re gonna love all the cheesy lines I’ll have for you, Grimm.”

Sabrina smiles at him sardonically, “I’m sure my dad’ll love them, too.” Puck blanches, his grin practically falling off his face and clattering to the floor.

“Okay, maybe we should keep it on the down-low for a bit,” he concedes. She grins up at him.

“Good call, fairy boy,” she says, rewarding him with a kiss, one that he receives with open arms and an open heart.

 

 

_\- fin -_


	4. this is why we play

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are y'all watching Golden State vs the Cavs in 8 hours?! 'Cause that is precisely why I am posting this right now! Forgive my enthusiasm for the sport and please try and enjoy!

"Really, children, I have a very important meeting with the board of directors in an hour, I can’t waste my time on such menial activities involving sweaty youths and plastic trophies.”

“First of all, Your Majesty,” Daphne snaps as she keeps walking briskly towards the main gym. “I’m fourteen-years-old, and your sons are over four _thousand_ years old so we can hardly be considered ‘children’ anymore.” Mustardseed glances at Daphne warily as the three of them turn a corner, his and Daphne’s sneakers squeaking against the linoleum and his mother’s heels clacking away loudly.

“Second of all, your office is a seven minute drive away from school and Duncan is outside at the front waiting for you, which means there is no way you’ll miss your meeting with only the fourth quarter left on the clock.” From the corner of his eyes, Mustardseed can see his mother give an exasperated but quiet sigh, obviously not taking too kindly to Daphne’s scolding, but at least she isn’t trying to interrupt, which is a big step for Titania.

“And lastly, one of those ‘sweaty youths’ is your _son_ , who happens to be one of the star players on the team, and he’s making history collecting those ‘plastic trophies’ which are going to get him the scholarships to all those Ivy League schools you keep mentioning,” Daphne takes a moment to look right at Titania as she says this and gives her a sweet smile.

“Oh, alright, already,” Titania hisses, giving up and tucking her sleek phone back into her purse, snapping the cover shut by her side. “Where is this gym and how long is it going to take?” Mustardseed has to resist rolling his eyes before gesturing to the gym doors in front of them.

“We’re already here, mom, and it’s just the last quarter,” he says placatingly, knowing that the only reason she’s been whining so much about attending this championship game is because the meeting with the board of directors is actually pretty important and will help her business take not just multiple steps but maybe even a huge leap in the market. It already says a lot about her that she even showed up today.

“Good,” Titania mutters. Daphne doesn’t bother hiding a quick eye roll as she pushes the gym doors open, releasing a wave of vibrant colours, ear-splitting cheers, and the sweet, putrid smell of puberty and healthy competition. Titania instantly stiffens, holding her Michael Kors clutch closer to her and keeping one paranoid hand on the flap. When Daphne turns around to guide Titania to their seats at the bleachers, she immediately notices how out of place Puck and Mustardseed’s mother looks in the main gym of a high school in New York, with her exquisitely pressed and cut business suit, sleek beige high heels that make her legs look miles long, and her pale blonde hair curled to perfection. Daphne grins to herself when she feels a rush of sympathy for the woman and before she can hesitate, reaches over to touch Titania’s shoulder gently.

“He’ll be really happy you showed up,” she assures Titania, to which the woman smiles thinly, hoping the uncertainty in her eyes doesn’t betray her emotions (they do). The three step over all the yelling teenagers and families scattered along the length of the bleachers, taking care to stay as far away from the boundary line as possible, until they make it to the middle of the bleachers, where Sabrina, a brunette Titania isn’t familiar with, and the rest of the Grimm family are on their feet screaming their throats raw.

“Alright, fancy feet, show ‘em what you’ve got!” Sabrina yells at her home team, clapping her hands fiercely as she watches the teams change position, eyes following Puck, playing the team’s point guard, as he takes possession of the ball. She’s stumbled one too many times over his moniker at school (“Robin”) and his _actual_ name, so she’s taken to giving him slightly insulting but generally endearing nicknames instead. The “fancy feet” label began when Puck had started high school with her and discovered the glorious game of basketball, specifically his own abilities to dribble, crossover, and sidestep almost every single player with his impressive hand-eye coordination and swift footwork. Sabrina constantly teases him that it “must be an Everafter thing” that he ended up being such a remarkable basketball player but he hasn’t let that stop him from rising to the top of his game and leading his team to countless victories. And with a current score of 77-72 in the fourth quarter in favour of their high school’s team, the Eagles, it’s looking like another victory, as long as they stay vicious for the ball.

“What’d we miss?” Daphne asks her sister loudly over the noise of the gym. Sabrina leans over to respond, never taking her eyes off of the game.

“Tigers #11 made _another_ three pointer so it’s 77-72 now but Puck just needs to keep his shit together and run the play. They’ll be fine!” Sabrina yells back in response, to which Daphne nods, focusing her gaze on the court and honing in on Puck.

“Good heavens, it’s never quite this loud during tennis matches,” Titania says out loud, mostly to herself, but Veronica, who’s standing on the bleacher behind her, hears her and leans over, grinning.

“This ain’t tennis, sweetie, but I can guarantee it’s a whole lot better,” she says, her attention immediately flying back to the game when Puck powers through the Tiger’s defence and makes a layup, giving his team another two points.

“Attaboy!” Veronica screams proudly, pumping up into the air. On either side of her, Henry and Baz mimic his wife, whooping loudly and just as enthusiastically. Titania watches them for just a few moments, pondering about their seemingly unlimited supply of energy, before her attention is captured again by the fast-paced game in front of her.

“So is Puck’s team winning?” she asks Mustardseed quietly. He looks at her incredulously before frowning when he realises she actually doesn’t know who’s winning and gives his mom a lopsidedly, affectionate smile.

“Yeah, Mom,” he explains to her patiently in a loud voice. He leans in close and points to the scoreboard on the wall across the gym. “It’s 79-72, and we’re winning. We’re the Eagles, the guys in white, and the Tigers, the guys in black, are our arch-nemeses. We _have_ to win this or we’ll never live it down until we’re seniors next year for the following season.”

“Oh, I see,” Titania says, though she doesn’t really, but she keeps her eyes on the game nonetheless. In her defence, she’s never watched a full game before, though she’s not a complete dunce when it comes to basketball, since Oberon used to stream NBA playoff games every now and then. She knows the general basics (she thinks), that the players need to defy the laws of physics with their own bodies to put that big, rubber ball in the hoop, that players aren’t allowed to “travel” (whatever that is), and that, for some ridiculous reason, if a player is good enough to “dunk” the ball, the crowd goes wild. The only thing she’s positive of is that basketball is just another sport where the players always leave the court as hot, sweaty, stinky messes she wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. No wonder Puck loves it so much. But her? No, she really much prefers tennis.

She wonders in the back of her mind, as the Tigers make a lucky steal and bring the ball back to the other end of the court for a successful layup, if Puck is aware that his father had also been a big fan of basketball. Then, as her son brings the ball up after changing possessions, she decides that it might not be a good idea to tell him that anytime soon, but she figures he wouldn’t mind knowing about it in the future. He’s only been maturing every day (God bless Larry and all his persistency) and at this point, she’s quite certain Puck’s going to be just fine as future king of Faerie.

“What the hell was that!?” the brunette next to Sabrina suddenly cries out so angrily, she startles Titania. “Foul! That is a _shitty_ call, ref! Do your job, man! Everyone saw that! _Ref_!” Titania scans the court to find the person the girl is addressing when Sabrina lends her voice as well.

“Make the call!” Sabrina yells at a tall and thin balding man waving his hands in a universal No gesture as members of the Eagles, including Puck, walk towards him with their hands up in the air in protest. “ _Jesus_ , there are only two minutes left! These referees are gonna cost us the game!”

“What? What’s happening? What happened?” Titania asks, completely lost, eyes bouncing between the players, the referee, and her companions.

“So, Puck just passed to Mike, #13, who’s a senior and like the _best_ player on the team,” Daphne explains. “And Mike tried to make a layup but Tigers #5, who’s been fouling _all_ night, just fouled him now and the ref didn’t call it.”

“Well, that won’t do,” Titania muses. “All forms of crime need to face suitable punishment.”

“Tell the ref that,” Sabrina snorts next to Daphne, having heard Titania.

“I intend to,” the Queen of Faeries declares, turning to give Sabrina a pointed look, but the blonde completely misses it, still intently focused on what’s unfolding on the court in front of her.

“How does one express their disapproval with utmost poise in these gatherings?” she asks Daphne, who’s always been the more patient sister, but the younger girl looks at her as if she’s speaking Mandarin, clearly having some difficulty in processing Titania’s words.

“You…” she starts to say, trailing off in confusion before Sabrina interrupts.

“You yell, Your Highness,” she answers quickly, her tone laced with irritation at the misfortune of her home team. Titania stammers, still fully intent on informing the referee that it is his _responsibility_ to uphold the rules on the court as well as his _duty_ to carry out all forms of punishment in light of any infringements of the previously aforementioned rules, but she’s not quite sure _yelling_ at the man is the right way to get her point across. Queens don’t really have to yell; they have regents and viceroys for that.

“Is that appropriate?” she wonders out loud, head snapping to the side when Mustardseed breathes out a laugh at her predicament.

“Mom,” he waves his hand slightly in a sort of ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ manner, gesturing at the packed crowd of livid, noisy, and above all, _spirited_ people around them. “Just go for it, no one’s going to care.”

“Right,” Titania mumbles albeit a little hesitantly, rethinking whether or not she really cares enough about this game to expose her presence and purse in such a pungent venue. She prepares to … _yell_ at the referee and squints her eyes as she thinks about what she could possibly say to knock some sense into the gentleman. Titania catches the look on Puck’s face and even at a distance, she can recognise the snarling arch of his lip, baring just a little bit of teeth, the frustrated line of his sweaty brow, and the piercing fire in his eyes. He’s wearing the same look of irritation Titania occasionally wears herself, the one she practically _patented_ , and that recognition is what really brings it home that her son is probably in love with this sport as much as she is in love with coming home with a beautiful new coat or a new pair of heels (which is, to say, a lot).

She figures if this sport is worth something to her son, then it should be worth a little something to her, too.

“Ex _cuse_ me, good sir!” she yells in a shrill voice, drawing a smile from Mustardseed, startling Daphne and attracting the Grimms’ attention. She knows that the ref probably can’t hear her under the noise of louder, more experienced fans raging their disapproval at him, and that the game’s already starting to continue without any penalties against Tigers #5, but she forges on.

“If you know what’s right for you, you’ll see to it that every single infraction receives the appropriate punishment, _especially_ for #5’s countless infringements, do you hear me, you corrupt celery stick of a man!?” Daphne erupts into giggles at Titania’s idea of name-calling and Sabrina and her brunette friend break down laughing next to her. Mustardseed, quite used to his mother’s fits, only grins, an endearing and possibly even proud look on his face.

“Were my husband present at this very game, he’d have you thrown in a dungeon but should you allow another bout of unlawful fraudulence again, sir, I’ll have you beheaded!” From behind Titania, Veronica winces at the threat, Henry cocks an eyebrow and even seven-year-old Baz frowns.

“Okay,” Veronica says gently to Titania, placing a cautious hand on the woman’s shoulder in a subtle attempt to silence her.

“And you call yourself a referee! Incompetent!” Titania bellows the last word, cupping her mouth even as the Eagles capture the crowd’s attention again, whizzing by after a speedy steal, making another basket and bringing the score up to 81-74.

“Felt good?” Daphne beams up at Titania, who surprises her by flashing the slightest grin that’s startlingly identical to the Trickster King’s.

“Surprisingly, yes,” Titania responds with no hesitation. “I just hope that wretched man doesn’t waste anymore time.”

“They’ll be fine!” Sabrina repeats. “The Tigers need to make eight points in just over a minute. And with Mike there to cut off #11’s three-pointers, they’ll be hard-pressed to pull it off!”

Sabrina’s proven embarrassingly wrong when the Tigers make not one but two shots, closing the gap between the scores even further at 81-78.

“You jinxed it!” Daphne hisses at her sister in between chanting “Defense!” with the rest of the crowd.

“They’ll be fine!” Sabrina insists stubbornly. Titania wonders in one corner of her mind if the older Grimm sister has a little too much faith in her home team or if she’s just delirious. She glances at the 24-second clock, heart picking up speed with the combined pounding of the bleachers, the endless cheering, and the pressure of the clock.

_11_

Sabrina worries her bottom lip while the boys are stuck on the Tiger’s side of the court, heavily focused on maintaining a tight defense, her eyes widening and blood roaring in her ears as she watches the ball move dangerously closer to the opposing team’s three-point shooter.

_9_

Daphne’s eyes blow up to almost twice their size when the Tigers manage a lucky pass to #11, almost shrieking in agony, and then Mustardseed’s jaw drops, actually _drops_ down a few inches when Mike Jones, Class of 2016, literally jumps three feet into the air to slap the ball away a split second after it leaves #11’s fingers.

_7_

Out of nowhere, the crowd watches a blur of blonde hair and glistening skin grab the ball and sprint down the court, Mike’s dark, sweaty skin right behind him.

_6_

The Tigers are right on Puck and Mike’s heels, of course, but they’re much too late to intervene.

_5_

Titania watches with rapt attention as her son races to the side of the basket…

_4_

…and swings the basketball around his waist, effectively fooling the Tigers and passing it to Mike, who takes the opportunity to redefine the whole meaning of a _slam dunk_.

83-78, Eagles.

The next three seconds before the buzzer sounds are possibly the loudest three seconds Titania has ever experienced in her thousands of years but she’s too busy bouncing up and down, her left hand clasped in between Daphne’s hands and her right hand never leaving Mustardseed’s shoulder. The players on the Eagle’s team, on the court and from the bench, race over to Mike and Puck, swarming them, rewarding them with congratulatory punches, and showering them with the attention and praise they so very much deserve.

Eventually, the boys remember their audience and excitedly make their way to the bleachers to celebrate with their friends and families. Titania scans the crowd of white jerseys for her eldest son, prouder than she’s ever remembered being, when she spots him pushing through his teammates to get to them.

She opens her mouth to call out Puck’s name (his _real_ name, since no one’s bound to notice with all the commotion) when he suddenly breaks free from the crowd, steps over to Sabrina, wraps a sweaty hand around the back of her head, leans down, and silences her cheers with an effective kiss, eliciting unheard grumbles from Henry and even louder yelling from their peers around them.

From what Daphne and Mustardseed have heard around the grapevine, even the normal kids at their school are aware that Puck (or Robin, whatever) and Sabrina’s relationship was a longtime coming, and if anyone had been confused whether or not the two were together, they’re definitely sure of it now.

Daphne giggles gleefully into her hands, watching Sabrina and Puck kiss fervently in the chaos of a thousand voices and the glorious bliss of triumph. She notes that her sister doesn’t even seem to mind that Puck’s a sweaty, slippery mess and the only thing she can really grab that has any friction is his jersey. Daphne shares a mischievous grin with Mustardseed (and her mother) when she notices her dad start to twitch behind them, and laughs along with Baz, who’s pointing at his champion and his eldest sister with his mouth open in a wide, scandalous ‘O.’

And then Daphne turns to face Titania and the grin slips off her face faster than she can say “foul.”

Puck pulls his lips away from Sabrina’s, leaning in quickly again to kiss her nose, still drunk on euphoria and victory when he finally notices his mother’s presence.

“M-mom?!”

To say Titania’s a little confused would be the understatement of the century. The moment Puck had pressed his lips to Sabrina Grimm’s, she had decided then and there that she’d take a little - no, a _lot_ more care to stay updated with his life.

She’s going to have to cancel that meeting for now.

 

 

\- _fin_ - 

 


End file.
